PARKER, Francis Wayland, educator, b. in Bedford, N. H., 9 Oct., 1837. He was educated in the public schools and at the University of Berlin, and taught during his early manhood, but at the beginning of the civil war enlisted as a private in the 4th regiment of New Hampshire volunteers, from which he was mustered out in 1805 as lieutenant-colonel. He then resumed teaching, was superintendent of public schools in Quincy, Mass., supervisor of the Boston public schools, and subsequently principal of the Cook county normal school, Ill. Dartmouth gave him the degree of M. A. in 1886. He has published “Talks on Teaching” (New York, 1883); “The Practical Teacher” (1884); “Course in Arithmetic” (1884); and “How to Teach Geography” (1885).
PARKER, Henry, president of Georgia, b.
near Savannah, Ga., about 1690; d. in the isle of
Hope, Ga., after 1777. He was bailiff of Savannah
in 1734, which office at that time was identical
with that of magistrate, and shortly afterward he
colonized the isle of Hope. When the province
was divided into two counties in 1741, he
became an assistant to Sir William Stephens,
president of the Savannah province, succeeding him in
1750. In that year he presided over the first
assembly in Georgia, in which the executive and the
members addressed each other according to
parliamentary formalities. When the province
surrendered the charter in 1754, he resigned the
governorship and retired to his plantation on the isle of
Hope, where he died at an advanced age.
PARKER, Sir Hyde, British naval officer, b.
in England in 1739; d. in Copenhagen, Denmark,
16 March, 1807. He was the second son of
Vice-admiral Hyde Parker, and went to sea under his
father at an early age. He became post captain
in 1763, served on the “Phoenix,” on the American
station, in 1776, and participated in the attack on
New York. With a small squadron he conveyed
the force that captured Savannah in 1778, for
which service he was knighted the next year. He
became rear-admiral of the White in 1793, and
was at the surrender of Toulon and the reduction
of Corsica. He became rear-admiral of the Red in
1799, was in command at Jamaica, W. I., and in
1807 led the attack on Copenhagen, Denmark.
PARKER, Isaac, jurist, b. in Boston, Mass.,
17 June, 1768; d. there, 26 May, 1830. He was
graduated at Harvard in 1786, and, after teaching
for several years, studied law and settled in
Castine, Me., where he attained to eminence in his
profession. He was elected to congress as a
Federalist in 1796, served one term, and was U. S.
marshal for the district of Maine in 1797-1801.
He subsequently removed to Portland, in 1806 was
appointed a judge of the supreme court of
Massachusetts, in which state he then settled, and from
1814 until his death was presiding justice of that
body. He was professor of law at Harvard in
1816-'27, president of the Massachusetts constitutional
convention in 1820, and took a spirited part
in debate when he was relieved from the duties of
presiding officer. Harvard gave him the degree of
LL. D. in 1814. “His fame,” says Chief-Justice
Story, “must rest on the printed reports of his
own decisions. These will go down to future ages.”
He published an “Oration on Washington” (Boston,
1800) and a “Sketch of the Character of
Chief-Justice Parsons” (1813).
PARKER, James, legislator, b. in Bethlehem,
Hunterdon co., N. J., 3 March, 1776; d. in Perth
Amboy, N. J., 1 April, 1868. His father, James,
was one of the provincial council before the
Revolution, an active member of the board of proprie-
tors of the colony, and the owner of large landed
property. James was graduated at Columbia in
1791, and became a merchant in New York city,
but on the death of his father returned to Perth
Amboy, N. J. He was in the legislature in 1806-'28,
commissioner to fix the boundary-line between
New Jersey and New York in 1827-'9, and collector
of the port of Perth Amboy in 1829-'30. He
was elected to congress as a Federalist in 1832,
served two terms, and was in the State constitutional
convention in 1844. He was a vice-president
of the New Jersey historical society for
many years, its president from 1864 till his death,
was active in the cause of education, and gave
the land to Rutgers college on which its buildings
now stand. During his legislative career he originated
the law that put an end to the local slave-trade
in 1819, the one that established the school
fund, and the provisions of the present law that
regulates the partition of real estate in New Jersey
and the rights of aliens to possess it. — His son,
Cortlandt, lawyer, b. in Perth Amboy, N. J.,
27 June, 1818, was graduated at Rutgers in 1836,
admitted to the bar, and attained to eminence in
that profession. He was one of the revisers of the
laws of New Jersey in 1875, and a commissioner to
settle the boundaries between that state and
Delaware. He was successively offered the judgeship
of the court of Alabama claims by President Grant,
the mission to Russia by President Hayes, and that
to Austria by President Arthur, but declined them
all. He was several times an unsuccessful candidate
for attorney-general of New Jersey and for
the U. S. senate. Rutgers and Princeton gave him
the degree of LL. D. in 1866.
PARKER, Joel, jurist, b. in Jaffrey, N. H., 25
Jan., 1795; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 17 Aug., 1875.
He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1811, and
began the practice of law in Keene, N. H., in 1815.
He was in the legislature in 1824-'6, appointed
associate justice of the supreme court of New
Hampshire in 1833, and became chief justice in 1836.
In 1840 he was chairman of the committee to revise
the laws of the state. In 1847-'57 he was professor
of medical jurisprudence at Dartmouth, and from
1847 until his death he was professor of law at
Harvard. His publications, exclusive of law
reports and periodical essays, include an address on
“Progress” (Hanover, N. H., 1840); “Daniel
Webster as a Jurist,” an address to the Harvard
law-school (Cambridge, Mass., 1853); “A Charge to the
Grand Jury on the Uncertainty of Law” (1854);
“The Non-Extension of Slavery” (1856);
“Personal Liberty Laws and Slavery in the Territories”
(1861); “The Right of Secession” (1861);
“Constitutional Law” (1862); “Habeas Corpus and
Martial Law” (Philadelphia, 1862); “The War
Powers of Congress and the President” (1863);
“Revolution and Construction” (New York, 1866);
“The Three Powers of Government” (1869); and
“Conflict of Decisions” (Cambridge, 1875).
PARKER, Joel, clergyman, b. in Bethel, Vt.,
27 Aug., 1799; d. in New York city, 2 May, 1873.
He was graduated at Hamilton in 1824, studied at
Auburn theological seminary, and in 1826 was
ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church in Rochester,
N. Y. He organized the Dey street church in
New York city in 1830, was pastor in New Orleans
in 1832-'7, and, returning to New York, officiated
at the Broadway tabernacle. He became president
of Union theological seminary and professor of
sacred rhetoric there in 1840, served two years and
was subsequently pastor in Philadelphia, and in
1854-'63 of the Bleecker street Presbyterian church,
New York city. His last pastorate was in Newark,
